Road to the Equinox...

On this year's observance of  #InternationalIndigenousWomensDay there is so much to be thankful for while also acknowledging how many concerning items we must consider.

I celebrated the day, like many if not most women across the globe, by rising before dawn, waking my two children, drawing water into the filtration system, ensuring my children are clothed, groomed and fed, and getting them off to school before getting myself to work.

After school I picked them up, dragged them to the local school board meeting so they could voice their opinions on the need for continued district funding for art and science fieldtrips, fed them, helped them with homework, and put them to bed before washing dishes, washing clothes and drawing water again for the next day's cooking and drinking. 

In between I fielded work and personal calls, considered the many house and self care tasks that just don't always get done, planned the weekend #miamirising climate justice art events we will participate in, and spent at least 60 minutes more than I should have on social media catching up with friends, family and whatever real news snippets make it through the mathematical algorithms to reach my eyes.

Now it's to fold and put away the laundry while the little one sleeps and the high schooler finishes off the last of the homework due. Meanwhile I do my best to allay the constant worry of health, bills and wellness, which seems so simple and yet turns out to be so very complicated in this moment in history...

Good, strong thoughts to you, my fellow warriors, as we prepare to set off in the battle to strive toward completing another day of daily life in the war against oblivion....

@bawshkeengwabigun

P.S. After writing and before publishing this post, I did manage to at least boil a pot of cedar tea, so I'm happy to report checking at least one item off on the care list, thanks for the encouragement....  ;)

Summer solstice 2018

Beauty. Work. Hope.

These are some of the things that come to mind during this time of year when we celebrate the Summer Solstice in this region of our planet. This year we took a moment to reflect on the strong rays of sunlight that were literally shining through the clouds surrounding us this longest day of the year. As human beings, we all have those things which distract us, just as we all have gifts that are immeasurably important to the human family. A condition in which each of us has the opportunity to fully develop and share those gifts with all of humanity is, for me, the ideal goal of a healthy economy. I also published an article that describes some of the current work that I've been helping Fort Lauderdale Historical Society engage in which can be found in this month's edition of InterpNews (p. 84-88, there is a great article on concretions immediately preceeding mine too!).

#MictlaC

A post shared by Tara Chadwick (@bawshkeengwabigun) on Jun 21, 2018 at 11:03am PDT

This month I also had the opportunity to share some of these thoughts briefly with a gathering of a few of Broward County's brilliant people. I'm looking forward to contributing more to widening our base of passionate, accountable and inspired community builders.

Purpose. Plan. Position. Priceless experience being in a room with these amazing visionary women connecting and collaborating in planting seeds of love, unity, education, growth, opportunity, and prosperity in our community! ❤️ thanks for the great pic @bawshkeengwabigun #creativesconnecting #build #community #engagement #art #culture #culturalheritage #creative #women #visionary #entrepreneurs #collaborate

A post shared by Lisé Galezo (@creativesconnecting) on Jun 22, 2018 at 10:28am PDT

Beautiful performance at the pre-Synergy Summit for Cultural and Heritage Tourism! #Broward #FortLauderdale @chatsummit2018 #tourism @FTLCityNews pic.twitter.com/A6n8x0UxlC

— Invest: GFL (@InvestGFL) May 16, 2018

Today we had a great pre-summit symposium, tomorrow, join us for #chatsummit2018 and get in on some of the most important #tourism discussions for the 21st century! pic.twitter.com/5fy6JiOBc0

— Tara Chadwick (@wabigun) May 17, 2018

Eclipse Day

Sometimes our time markers, memory markers all happen to converge.  Today is one of those days. First day of school of the last year of middle school for my older son and the first day of kindergarten for the younger one.

Four and three quarters of a year past the completion of the bundle of years we know as the baktun cycle of the Mesoamerican calendar.

Our young people are getting healthy, standing up, using their voices.  Unity is on the rise. It is definitely the beginning of an era.

Our ancestors across this continent had and continue to have many different ways of honoring the particular point in the infinite dance of our universe that we recognize today as eclipses.  There are scrolls and charts, sculptures and symbols to account for the calculations of the passing of time and the various markers used to keep track of the many cycles we observe.  In some cases, we don't know what types of ceremonies or commemorations were held, while in other cases, the ancient traditions are still practiced within vibrant cultural communities.

In my own pleuri-cultural family, lunar eclipses, like the phases of the moon that greet us every day of every month of every year, remain a special and sacred time of reflection, quiet contemplation, care and love.  My grandmother would always stay up, notice, watch and sing a beautiful rendition of "big lady moon" in her low lullabye voice, while my grandfather would always join us for a moment, then retreat to his sleeping quarters.  The instructions we are to follow as human beings remain clearly written on our hearts, we have only to clear our minds enough to follow them.

In the cities of our Maya ancestors, urban planners constructed cultural landscapes with central plazas in line with the location of the rising, setting and mid-day sun on the days of the summer and winter solstice.  Some cities, known for their scientific prowess in tracking the cycles of the planets and starts, contain ancient observatories, perhaps they even functioned as building-sized pinhole cameras or camera obscura.

In 1979 when I was six years old, I attended a Miami-Dade County public school called Comstock Elementary.  I loved my reading book, "It Happened This Way," featuring a pink flamingo who had swallowed a pretzel on the front cover.  I hated the standardized testing I was introduced to that year. I loved earning cheeze it cracker treats from my teacher by sitting quietly when it was rest time.  And I remember the day all the teachers were worriedly reminding us not to look up at the sun.  It was Miami's last total solar eclipse, and my most memorable day of school, ever. Kudos to all the teachers, principals and administrators who will do their best to ensure that no kids get solar blindness on their watch today.

As for me, I'm going to take a deep breath, take a few moments to reflect, and prepare to welcome in the start of a new era... maybe, hopefully, the sun will shine on our people once more....

#Ihiyo on the mic at #themegaphonepark in @fortlauderdalefl @soupsistrunk #sistrunk

A post shared by Adrienne Chadwick (@adriennechadwick) on Aug 20, 2017 at 5:21am PDT

Preparing for earth time

For parents and everyone the advent of Summer inevitably brings along with it a string of seasonal wonders and a certain set of challenges, scheduling changes, and out of school time activities to determine and implement.

Finally got my sisters to @FrostScience ♡♡♡ pic.twitter.com/sd27tFYL5U

— Tara Chadwick (@wabigun) June 13, 2017

For me and my family this summer was no different. There was camp to organize. Summer trips to consider. Summer work schedules to juggle. And the age-old question of what to do with a teenager, camp, work, volunteer, or couch potato?

...wi deh pan di road!

A post shared by Tara Chadwick (@bawshkeengwabigun) on Jun 26, 2017 at 2:15pm PDT

I don't think you ever know as a parent whether you're making good decisions at any given time. You can only ever do your best to consider all the options and Hippocratically hope that at the very least your choices do no harm to your children.

And so it is that we model through the beauty and Heat that is the south Florida summer in search of shade from the intense sunshine and splashes of 85 degree water which we consider cool.

The search for balance is epic and continual. Just as you think you've got things figured out, something else happens to make you start from scratch.

#sustainable #water #transportation #canoe #dugout #dorey #wood #tree #carving pic.twitter.com/OoSFiGguB5

— Tara Chadwick (@wabigun) June 20, 2017

Huracan means Heart of Earth Heart of Sky

... I had just returned from my second summer of working with Institute of Archaeology (NICH) Belize to squeeze in what would be my last family vacation (to date at least). We had driven over to Sanibel Island, FL and explored the beautiful west coast of our home state. Upon the weather reports, we rushed back across Alligator Alley, Everglades, Fl to encounter a whole line of cars heading in the opposite direction.

Our hurricane prep had to be kicked into high gear, with only a few short hours until the predicted landfall. It was by far the scariest night of my life. Uncertainty. Humility. Unknowing. When in the midst of a natural disaster we are wholly and completely in the hands of mother nature. Eventually the sun rose again, and by noon the waters in our neighborhood had receeded. Having survived with our home more or less intact, we gingerly ventured out to survey the effects.

Of course there was no electricity. Or running water at first. But these services were restored within several hours to several days in our area. The olive trees were all down, uprooted, laying sideways on the ground. Electrical wires dangled dangerously throughout the neighborhood like strewn jump ropes. The park was a complete mess. But the most difficult part of all was the complete absence of communication with our family in the Homestead area. No phone. Internet did not yet exist for us, nor did cell phones. Land lines were inoperable. And we had no access to television because our electricity had not yet been restored... Those were the most difficult days, hours that seemed like months.

Once the electricity finally came back on and we were able to view the #TV #Broadcast coverage of the storm damage... we could not believe what we saw. Complete and utter destruction. Telephone poles snapped like toothpicks. Trees completely denuded of branches and foliage. Houses, apartments and businesses in ruin, reduced to a messy pile of concrete and wood from which they were constructed. That had been my first experience in a serious hurricane, there were many close calls before, but this... this was a direct hit and a hard one. Many families lost everything in that storm. We began to see the incredible destruction that the southern parts of #Miami had sustained, and unable to contact any of our family members, my dad and I loaded up water, blankets, food and first aid supplies and headed out. We were going on a search and rescue mission, not knowing what to expect or what we would find. It started out okay, more trees down, electrical wires hanging... but as we drove further south, the landscape began to change. This familiar route became more and more foreign to me. Housing complexes crashed in from the top. Areas once covered with tree canopy looking like open savannah. The #MiamiZoo campus, with its new aviary, completely unidentifiable.

Once we got off the highway, which had been somewhat cleared of the debris, crumpled metal signs and their poles had been moved out of the center lane onto the shoulder. It was even hard to know where to get off, the landmarks were all missing. The short journey from the highway to the neighborhood where my mothers grandmother lived was the most difficult part of all. There were command centers set up, long lines of people looking disheveled. Soldiers handing out water. As we got closer it seemed to get more difficult to figure out where we were. At this point, there were no trees in sight. Not a single leaf anywhere. Many homes we passed were in various states of collapse, yards were littered with random debris, aluminum siding, patio furniture, buckets. We finally managed to locate the house. It too was bare of trees, foliage, just the trunk of the giant avocado stood behind as a sentinel of sorts... but the house was still standing! We found a clear spot to park. Got out. And the door opened! I was so happy and relieved to find my three grandmothers all alive and relatively well. There were parts of the house that were in shambles, roof busted, but they were okay. We brought in the food, water, and supplies that we'd brought. Dad got to work with the chainsaw, clearing fallen trees from the driveway. And honestly, I don't even remember the ride home! All I know is that I was really happy that our search and rescue mission was successful. The rest is #history....

If you have stories of #HurricaneAndrew, check out History Miami or contact them at archives@historymiami.org or 305-375-1623.

The Magical Month of March: Whiz... Blurrr... Wheee...!

Watching the spiral of the seasons change fly by at gale force speed; reflecting on thirty years of work in the field of museums, education and community building; ten years since the water forum in Mexico; feeling gleeful and daunted by that double four approaching just one equinox away...

The struggle of life is a good one, seems that we're always headed up hill, but that's how it is when you're engaged in the process of building, constructing, however, wherever it's possible to carve out a little space for equity, dignity, dialogue and learning.

It's tough at times, intentionally participating in this collaborative venture to prevent oblivion with the few hundred ties we have to other members of this human species we proudly belong to...

And then there are times just like this moment, when in the process of making new connections, you come to realize how delicious it is to enjoy the tattered, frayed imperfection of those old and older relationships that have been there all along.

This month as I attended the annual Baron Bliss Day (aka Heroes and Benefactors Day) gathering of the Belize Association of Florida, I watched the older heads come in, with their grown kids, grand kids and great grands... and I watched my kids play with them the same way I used to play in my day... and suddenly I remembered my spot on the living room floor, folding letters and stuffing envelopes at just about the same age my pre-teen son is now. The memory was so sudden and vivid and it brought back a host of others... of floats & banners, buttons & beads...

The next day I checked the database... 30 years it's been since that moment! The Belize Association has been an active part of the South Florida community and the Belizean Diaspora for thirty years this year. That's my formative training. Do what you must to build something. Make the time. Find the resources. Keep it going. Make it happen. I am so glad that I happened to be here this year. To remember. To appreciate. To mark the anniversary of this work that my mom, dad and their friends did to build something for our community.

Of course, now... the question is... "what will I do..."  #laluchasigue

News Reel on Baron Bliss Day at Belize Association of Florida (minute 1:12 - 1:34)

That's it for 2015!

Each cycle is a transition... and life is a series of cycles... birth, growth, expansion, contraction, transition... and repeat...

Here's an oldie but goodie:
"Reflections on the Reef"
from Tobacco Caye
back in 1998...

Thinking about that possibility of a multiverse - not the TV or satellite or gaming cube... but the mathematical, astrophysical, scientific concept of infinite universes...

Kinda makes sense, logically. And really puts a focus on how much our actions, choices and impacts really boil down to:  what is it that is so important to me that I can make no other decision other than to take this path right here.

Subjective, yes perhaps.  Lacking critical analysis... maybe.  Considered rebellious by the mainstream population... most likely.  But if we are careful to include continual critical analysis in our daily life habits, then the points at which we have the opportunity to take action will necessarily reflect an ongoing critical perspective.

Wellness is a state of balance that is constantly in motion... wobbling, either perceptively or not, between the range of possible extremes.

And so, we vow to continue on... and jump in to another cycle, with reverie, resoultions and respect for our own self discovery as individuals in relationship with families, communities, organizations and other individuals all over this beautiful land and infinite interspace...


Tara's Year in Review

Cheers!

Florida Fall

Just a little stream of consciousness blogging this time - it's my birthday month after all! And that beautiful time of year when I get to enjoy avocados from the tree so generously planted by my mother in our almost non-existant back yard! It's amazing what you can grow, even with very little space.  The eggplants that sewed from seed at the start of summer have blossomed all month, but not a single fruit.  The leaves are beauties though - not sure why no one has them as houseplants! Maybe they're like squash and it takes a human touch to ensure pollination...

So many thoughts, so little time. One of the most exciting highlights of the month was seeing the bald eagle again across the street. Signs of hope. Hopefully. And of course knowing that we've entered a new era, according to the count of the moon. New is always good, at least if it's all natural - by the way, it may not be actually, if there's a label involved....

Okay, so now that I'm feeling all shy and embarrassed for providing a short glimpse into the raw, unedited mind of me... I'll close for now... Enjoy the beauty of the season!

Bawshkeengwabigun.

Full circle, once again

This is me at Lovitt's Point, a half-acre park at the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs donated by Mr. and Mrs. Lovitt after their 1940's post-WWII home "went over."  I had no idea these trees were so little back then.  The Point, as it came to be known, was my forest, my solace, my destination.  This was the wilderness I could access on my own, even when as a youngling, my freedom to wander was limited.  The Point was my static datum point from which I observed the changes and cycles of nature.  It was the place from which I developed and processed my ever-changing self-realization.  It remains the place to which I am forever connected as the geographic point on the surface of our Mother Earth from which my own mother opened her doorway of life for the first time, and allowed me a safe passage here to the realm of the living.

It was here that I watched the moon rise and set. Here that I witnessed the monarchs roost. And here that I learned I could climb whatever mountain I choose with careful planning, balance and strategy.  The black-eyed susans and milkweed flowers that filled the summer fields with sweetness and beauty are some of the very same species that belong here, at this very southern most tip of our North Eastern seabord. Not surprising since our bird relatives make their way back and forth along their natural fly ways.  I do miss seeing those beautiful warrior hummers and that field full of honey-scented milkweed, buzzing with bees and red with lady bugs by day; dotted with fireflies by night.


This week, though, we saw the bald eagle again, fishing at the restored Miramar Pinelands Lake.  Now this is my forest. My wilderness. My place to walk and process and plan the next phases of my life. This beautifully restored ecosystem, billions of years in the making, so I could walk through and introduce my little one to his first memorable glimpse of our country's emblem and protector.

Seasons and cycles are ever changing, but some things will always remain.

Assigning Value

Jam-packed, chaos-filled building from the ground up...

Making something from nothing on two very different projects; both unexpectedly challenged my own internal assumptions about value.  Particularly, negotiating that delicate balance between self assessment and the expectations of others.

So many factors come into play! Self esteem, self worth, the racism, sexism and classism that we know influences the value the others assign to our work, and which we ourselves have also internalized.

It is such an act of will and bravery to even attempt to proceed through these murky waters, fraught with emotional reaction to these points of lifelong sensitivity!

Perhaps it's just easier to let others assign their value and just go with that...

But no, not for me... I had to be the child of a rebel mom - challenging every possible notion of mediocrity, status-quo and assumptions wherever possible.

And so, I inherited the obligation to continually learn how to stand up for myself... to be proud of who I am... and to teach the value of what I do... the value of what we all do, when we bring our whole, complete selves to the table.


Our future is inextricably linked to our past and sharing with each other who we are is not only valuable but invaluable to the success of our collective future.

 

Conscious design - present, past, future!

History - Rage - Creativity - Design - Future

Knowledge - Awareness - Understanding

Working to educate not incarcerate

Consolidate not incinerate

Learning how to listen

for OURstories in hisSTORY

Through the recycled

building materials

of life

Carbon

Hydrogen

Oxygen

Iron

We renew our commitment

to being human

every time we raise our

question

who are we

what have we come through

and where are we headed...

Each time we ask

why, how or what...

on every occasion when we feel the desire

to act, heal or change...

there is a spark

of creativity

of potential

that we all have

to return

to our true

sane

original

selves

and to go together

through

endless work

of being

of becoming

human

together

through smoke - fire - water and drought

We have that spark

of hope

that will burn

into a fire of

accountability

of truth

resting on a foundation

of justice

that is not the

weapon of war

but the bedrock

of our mother

earth

A short spring photo journal poem: The conflicted life of a parent... Artist...

Sometimes I feel so supported and surrounded by the beauty and encouragement of family, friends, and of life herself...

And sometimes I feel forgotten, forsaken by all that walk and breathe and live...

 That is, I suppose part of the dance of life, revolving with the seasons....

Ever thankful for each moment of joy and freedom.

 Life... birth... death...

Let us see what mischief we can find while we can

What beauty and justice lies in wait....

Standing firmly for our future

When you look at me…
What do you see?

Do you form boxes or pyramids or spheres
Around your experience of my existence?

Do you label, tag and file
Your perception of my experience?

Do you interact intending to
Listen and learn, hear and teach to or with me?

When you look at me…
Do you see my endless transformations,
Translations of time, space and place?

Do you see my endless imperfections,
Perfectly timed choices to bridge the next leap?

Do you see me changing?
Because life and time are motion!

Do you see me listening, hearing and learning
With you?

We are
Inside and out – outside and in

We are
WE ARE
Together & Apart

We are
Wrong and Right

WE ARE
I am because WE ARE
WE ARE
WE ARE Finding a Path
To the Future
In Balance
Together

We ARE exploring the
Basics of life
In Balance

We ARE asking the critical questions
Of why and how and what and who

We are
Together
Finding our way
Through the chaos
Of uncertainty
To the firm footing in the bedrock of
Our unshakeable foundation of
Core values

We belong to the Earth and Sky
Our duty here, on our brief stay, is to remember
And act accordingly.

The Earth is our Mother
We must each learn again
How to live a life
Of Respect
And Integrity

We begin NOW
(And again every day)

Let us respect our Mother
(and each other)

We begin from within our hearts and homes
Cleaning, clearing, cutting loose and letting go
Of those thoughts and patterns that no longer need
Space in our surroundings…

Within that most sacred of spaces we call “home”
Is where the truth of our existence dwells…

Our struggles there reflect those of our family,
Community and nation.
Our battles won and lost is the stuff of our life journey.

The love that is shared – or absent – here is our best answer
To how to survive, to live, to thrive and to restore
The health and balance between us humans
And the rest of the plant, animal, animate and inanimate beings
On this water drop spark in the universe…